Education debate triggers emotional reaction

The public got its first chance Tuesday to provide input on legislation that would dramatically change the accountability for Texas public schools, which includes a new career and technology emphasis for students not destined for a university.

Some folks are concerned that students without college aptitude will be forced into a track where college is not an option. Texas House members Harold Dutton, D-Houston, and Alma Allen, D-Houston, forcefully expressed themselves during a House Public Education Committee hearing on HB 3.

Leaving students behind will only make them “raw material” for the state’s prison system, Dutton said. Dutton, a lawyer, said he would have ended up on the lowest track had such a system existed during his school days, Most of the failing schools and low-performing students are minorities and come from low-income families, said Allen, a former Houston public school principal.

House photo

Rep. Alma Allen, D-Houston

Failing schools get punished when, instead, should be getting more help, more technology, more experienced teachers and much smaller class sizes, Allen said. “Keep in mind our history – 310 years in slavery. No education. Didn’t want you to read – trying to keep you from reading,” she said, noting that segregation in the 1950s triggered attempts to keep minority children out of the better schools. “We need not throw them in the pool and say, ‘swim with the rest of the kids’, but you have shackles on those kids’ legs,” she said.

House Public Education Chairman Rob Eissler, R-The Woodlands, and Senate Public Education Chairman Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, plan to consider recommended improvements before they revise their school accountability plan for a final bill to move up to their respective chambers.

Texas must reform its public educations system so that a high school diploma means something, Eissler says. More than 40 percent of the state’s 2007 high school graduating class was not college ready.

The proposed changes include less emphasis on one high-stakes test, greater focus on academic improvement for individual students, more academic flexibility in choosing electives and far more efforts on preparing students either for college or for the skilled workforce (and high paying jobs).

The stakes are high.

“If we get this right, it’s great for our kids. If we get it wrong, Texas goes backwards,” House Public Education Vice Chairman Scott Hochberg, D-Houston, said.

Some contend that upgrading career and technology education will better match interests and skills with those students who have no college plans. Instead of dropping out of school, they would be attracted to courses and classes leading to productive careers.

”We’re encouraged that we, hopefully, will be able to salvage many more young lives, keeping them from dropping out by virtue of the fact that they see relevance in their high school education,” former Senate education leader Bill Ratliff told the committee.

But the challenge will be to elevate career and technology without diluting academics.

“The only way to prepare students for an unknowable future is to give everyone a solid academic foundation,” Texas Higher Education Commissioner Raymund Paredes said.

Dutton kept expressing doubts about a two-tier tracking system.

”Who’s going to decide the makeup of these tracks? Which students end up in which track?” he wondered.

Every child should be taught to reach his or her maximum potential, he said.

All of this should make for an interesting debate later when this priority bill reaches the House and Senate chambers.